Policies?...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Policies!

Well, well, well, it's politics as usual here in Hidalgo County. According to Victoria Hirschburg's report in today's Monitor, "Arturo Guajardo Jr. is being accused by other candidates of campaigning during county time". The two candidates raising the ruckus around town are Joseph Campos, and Andrew Perez. Perez is quoted in The Monitor as saying, "I don't mind that he's campaigning, but we're basically paying for him to run against us". The big 'to do' surrounds Arturo Guajardo Jr.'s political website http://vote4guajardo.com/ and the similarities in relation to the Hidalgo County Clerk's website http://hidalgo.tx.us.landata.com/. Victoria Hirschburg's article states that county policy "does not permit the use of any county owned materials or equipment for political campaigns". Well, I googled both websites, and as far as I could tell, you do need to look at the relationship subjectively. At first glance you really can't see any wrongdoing. I mean both websites have different hosts, hell, they don't even use the same color schematics. But, what I did find was that at least half of the county's website is in fact Guajardo's political ad main page, excluding of course the links, faq's, and what not. In my opinion Guajardo broke policy by using the information found in the county website as his own main page. But, it's tricky, as most political strategies around this county are, but judge for yourself. You can log on to The Monitor's website by clicking on the link in the blogroll, or visiting the above websites highlighted above. After that drop me a comment or two in the Guestbook. I'd really love to hear what the rest of you think about this.